The Dispersion of Eye Movements During Visual Imagery is Related to Individual Differences in Spatial Imagery Ability

Roger Johansson, Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University

Jana Holsanova, Department of Cognitive Science, Lund University

Kenneth Holmqvist, Humanities Laboratory, Lund University

Abstract

This study explored individual differences in eye movements during
visual imagery. Eye movements were recorded for participants who recalled a
picture from memory while looking at a blank screen. All participants were tested
for working memory capacity and the OSIVQ (Blazhenkova & Kozhevnikov, 2009) was
used as an assessment for individual differences in object imagery, spatial
imagery and verbal cognitive style. Results revealed a negative correlation
between the overall spatial dispersion of eye movements and the spatial imagery
score. Consequently, those with a lower spatial imagery score employed a larger
degree of eye movements to blank spaces than those with a higher spatial imagery
score. No relationship was found between eye movements and the other aspects. We
propose that weaker spatial imagery ability increases the need to
execute eye movements during recall and discuss this finding in relation to the
current literature on eye movements to nothing.